Just how fast can you go?

I remember when I was a kid, maybe six or seven, we walked to a local drug store and sat at the counter and had cherry cokes. I remember the counter person would take a tall glass, put a squirt of syrup, a squirt of cherry syrup and the rest would be fizzy water from the fountain. I remember sometimes we would get Coke floats.

I remember when I was a kid, once a month, my grandmother would take my sister and me on the bus all the way to Worcester Mass (about 30 miles from our town) for a Saturday “Outing”! Gram would buy her monthly supply of stockings and take us for Chinese food. I remember the Chinese food restaurant was on the second floor, everything was painted green and our table was behind swinging doors so we had our own private room.

I remember my grandmother and/or our mother would take my sister and me to Main Street and do our school shopping, uniforms for school, Brownie or Girl Scout uniforms, knee highs, and to Thom McCann for one pair of good shoes!

I remember we had a hurricane one year, the water had to be two to three feet deep and all of us were standing on the front porch watching the water rush down the road. I remember my grandfather reaching over to save my tricycle pulling it to safety from the rushing water and I remember thinking he was my hero for doing something so brave.

And I remember Wednesday’s really were Prince Spaghetti day, with fresh bread from the A&P. I remember my mother coming around the corner walking from the store with two bags, all for that one meal. We set the dining room table properly on Wednesdays. We were so excited.

Today I was in line at the drive though at McDonalds’. In front of my car was a mini-van. I couldn’t make out the people inside except for one adult and two or three smaller heads in the back seat. The tray of drinks passed through the window, a minute or two later a bag of whatever. And the van drove off.

I thought to myself, have we reached the point of being in such a hurry we can’t go inside a fast food restaurant? Are we in too much of a rush to make memories?